Just got this in today! got away from my Hobart 140 and stepped up to this and the spoolmate 100 and a new hood. gonna get a cylinder of 75/25 and 100 argon for each type of welding and to stay away from Flux cored as that is what I have used and taught myself to weld with. already have a solid brass ground clamp coming since I did that with my Hobart and it changed the weld look dramatically.

Any help, tips or anything else I would love to hear.

Looks like a 211, I have the 210 which is an older model of that one. Mine is only 220v, I think the newer ones are dvi. Spoolgun is similiar also, I have 3035 that's the 100. You'll like it alot. More than enough juice to build whatever you want.

yes it is the new 211, I already wired a spot in my shop with a 50 amp plug, but the dual voltage is nice.

Yeah. I just bought a hobart 140 with a small bottle for "portability". I've welded 1/4" aluminum and 3/8 steel with no issues with my 210. Haven't tried the limits of the Hobart yet.

it's not bad for 115, but this new 211 is probably 15 lbs lighter! I'm going tomorrow to see how much each bottle of gas is fixing to but rape me.

I always wanted to mess with aluminum and after this last purchase of stuff for my boat and the quality which it was I am happy I will be able to do my own shit now, we'll once I figure the aluminum welding.

Ain't nothing to it. Just have to figure out your settings on alum. After that it's learning to make good beads.

I have some pieces at the shop set aside for you if I can make it up there. Along with the trailering bracket.

Here's a little video. This guy has got some pretty good stuff to watch.

http://youtu.be/8AT4cEHtMn8


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If you're wanting to purchase a bottle check cyberweld.com. you can buy a filled bottle and it'll ship to you're door.

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Yeah. I bought this small bottle of c25 for the small machine. I rent the big argon and big c25 bottles from a local shop.

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yup I watch alot of his shit. and I'm gone this weekend to a wedding.

One thing that helped me is that all welders are a little different when it comes to aluminum. For my welder the recommended settings are a little more than needed. I drop the settings down and see what it does on scrap.
I know you have seen that aluminum needs to be clean. Well it needs to be super clean.
For a learning aluminum welder you need to have the material super clean because if your having trouble you can eliminate that first.
Super clean material, good ground and lots of practice.
If your hungry to learn it will be easy. My dad who was a career welder said wanting to and willingness go a long way .
Have fun

Thanks, and yeah I had read about aluminum needing to be clean, and I also already swapped over to a solid brass ground clamp as well.

One thing you will notice, at least on mine. If the setting are correct and the material is clean, when welding it will hiss, spray transfer. If the material is somewhat dirty, it will act different and will have some splatter. I normally take a wire wheel, designated for my aluminum, and hit the area to weld just prior to welding it. Been doing it a while with no issues. I have found however that if you use a wire wheel on steel then on aluminum, the rust particles from the steel will slightly effect the welding of the aluminum. Not much, but I notice it.

Where is ol' golden arm? I figured he would have something useful to say.

which one?

There's more than one?

ha

finally had time to run and get a gas bottle this after noon since where I work is 30 min north of the house and where I had to get my truck out of the body shop today is 30 min south. ended up with a 135cf bottle of 75/25, since that is what I needed for some projects I need done now. it was only $25 more than a 80cf bottle.
I have figured out so far that I used to weld WAY too slow and that gas is awesome but less forgiving, but makes for some pretty shit! fuck some Flux core, but again that shit was nice outside and working on shit you could never get clean enough for a good solid core weld.
Up next is saving money for a argon bottle to start playing with that spool gun!

The one thing you will find is that welding with gas in the wind is a no no. A little wind yes, but Flux core has its advantages.

Yeah I used the shit of it. between me and my dad we probably put 40 lbs of Flux core thru the damn Ole hobart. but with gas I now know what mistakes I was making with the flux. passes too slow and amperage and wire speed too slow and low.
and yes I know it's not barbeque! lol.

I really wished I would have been in the position. to get this stuff before I was 30 and learn earlier, but thanks to the military I am learning late compared to some of these people and I only have about 8 1/2 years till I retire or atleast can. I would love to do this stuff on the side or whatever to complement my retirement check!

It's best to clean aluminum with a chemical cleaner and a stainless steel wire brush. I personally use acid and a stainless brush for aluminum. Aluminum can be tricky to weld but mig welding it should be pretty easy to learn. The reason for the wire brush is to get the oxidation off that you can't see. Also the melting temp of the oxidation is higher than the temp of the actual metal. Also make sure you match the wire up to the alloys in the work piece it makes things simpler and easier.

Just make sure to watch lots of videos on it and practice practice practice. Just buy you some aluminum flat bar and cut it up and burn through about 3 bottles of gas and by then you ought to start getting the hang of it. lol

Shit, what size bottles you using? 1.5cf? I'm pretty quick learner, not to brag, but I love mistakes for a reason. lol

80cf. But those three bottles were between learning how to mig and tig aluminum. I got the hang of it fairly quick but I figured might as well try to learn as much as I can. No sense in being half assed at it. We're not going to talk about how many tungsten electrodes I went through, that's a whole other story..
But that's really not a lot.. If you think about it flowing 15ish cf/hr that's really not all that much considering most of it was spent learning how to do it. Now a bottle lasts me a quite a while being I don't use it often.